Apparatus for forming characters out of sheet material.



A. WILKINSON.

APPARATUS FOR FORMING CHARACTERS OUT OF SHEET MATERIAL.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 1, 1011.

1,048,775. Patented De0.31,1912.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

x HIM II| Im- A. WILKINSON.

APPARATUS FOR FORMING CHARACTERS OUT OF SHEET MATERIAL.

APPLIGATION FILED MAY 1, 1911.

1,048,775, Patented Dec. 31, 1912.

2 SHEETSSHEBT 2.

UNITED STATES PATENT onnron.

ALBERT WILKINSON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO GARRETT G. WILSON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

APPARATUS FOR FORMING CHARACTERS OUT OF SHEET MATERIAL.

Specification of Letters Iatent.

Patented Dec. 31, 1912.

Application filed May 1, 1911. Serial No. 624,436.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALBERT WILKINSON, citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Apparatus for Forming Characters Out of Sheet Material,

- appearance that was hitherto presented by two sheets of different appearance, one

superposed upon the other and unequal in area. .By means of this feature of my invention I am-enabled to produce a character out-of a single sheet'of tin foil in which the -marginal, portionsof the character are smooth and the balance is mottled.

A machinewhich is constructed to carry v out thefirst. object of my invention, and

'which is also desirably employed to carry out the second object of my invention, may generally be described as residing in a punch member capable of penetrating the sheet ma 'terial such as tin or other metal foil, a die member made of resilient material such as rubber into which the punch member may be embedded so as to cut the sheet material that is interposed'between the punch and die members and auxiliary sheet supporting punch'upon the sheet material, whereby the,

sheet materialis smoothly cut by and along the cutting edges of the punch. In the preferred embodiment of my invention the auxiliary sheet supporting'means is itself also yielding, so that it may 'very closely approach the cuttin edge portions of the punch and may su ciently yield to permit the cutting edge portions of the punch properly to depress the yielding body of the die to enable the punch to perform its cutting function. In one embodiment of the nvention, however, the auxiliary supportlng means that margins the cutting edges of the punch is unyielding, in which event the clearance between the same and the punch is suflicient'to permit of the entry of the;

yielding material of the die into said clearance to an extent that will permit the punch to do its work.

In accomplishing the second object of my invention, the face of the punch is smooth along its cut-ting edges so as to produce a smooth shiny surface margining the edges of the character that is produced, the balance of the punch surface'being mottled or roughened, as by means of emery so as to produce the desired mottled appearance in the formed characters whereby a single sheet may serve to present an appearance that was hitherto produced by distinct sheets, one superposed upon another.

I will explain my invention more fully by-reference to the accompanying drawings showing the preferred embodiment thereof and in which- 3-3 of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 illustrates one form of a punch that may beemployed; Fig. 5 is a sectional view on line 5'-5 of Fig. 4; Fig. 6 is a view of one of the characters produced by the machine of my invention, a' backing for this character being also shown in this-figure; Fig. 7 is a view showing a character as produced in accordance with the hand method of the prior art; and Fig. 8 is .a sectional view showing a part of a modified punch element. I

Like, parts are indicated by similar characters of reference throughout the different figures.

The punch member 1 of the machine is made-up in a shape to conform with the character or characters to be produced. This unch member desirably includes a chase 2 in which the character forming elements 3 and 4 of the punch are removably secured,

character forming parts are separable from the chase or other support therefor. The

' character forming parts 8 and 4 of the punch bodiment of the invention illustrated, is

shown as being flat and as occupying a position upon the flat bed 5. to which the punch member is clamped. The bed '5 is adapted to be reciprocated as a consequence of themtation of ahand crank shaft 6 carrying pinions 7 in engagement with rack bars 8, the bed 5 and the punch member traveling therewith being somewhat analogous tofthe bed of a flat bed cylinder press. f-

While I prefer to locate the punch member of the machine of my invention upon a fiat reciprocating bed, I do not wish to" be limited to this characteristic. Referring now more particularly to Fig 4 and 5, the cutting edges of the character forming elements 3 and 4 are margined by auxiliary sheet supporting means 9 whose upper faces are desirably flush with the cutting face of'the punch element and which auxiliary sheet supporting means are made of yielding material so that the yielding die mayslightly depress the auxiliary sheet supportmg means and thereby permit the-punch to enter the die to an extent that will enable the punch to out the sheet material that is interposed between thedie and the punch. To insure the best results, the supporting means 9 are desirably slightly separated,

' from the contiguous punch cutting edges.

Referring now more particularly to Fig.- 8, the auxiliary sheet supporting means 9 are shown as being made of unyielding material such as wood, in which event the clearance that intervenes between the cutting edges of the punch element and the supporting means 9 is sufliciently great topermit of the admission therein of the yielding die to an extent that will enable the punch to per? form its function. The edge portions of the auxiliary sheet supporting means 9, shown in Fig. 8, that are presented to {the cutting edges are desirably rounded-.to'prevent the supporting means 9 from themselves cutting sheet material interposed between the punch and die.

Inasmuch as the punch is, in the embodithe circumference of the cylinder operates ment of the invention illustrated, located flat .upon the base of a traveling flat bed, the die is in they form of a cylinder inclosed by a heavy coating 10 of a yielding resilient, compressible and self-expansible material such as rubber employed in printing ink rollers. This cylinder presses upon the punch element as the punch element is moved beneath the same and the yielding material 10 upon upon the punch element to cut the sheet material 11 that is between the punch and cylinder. The cylinder thus constitutes a rotating die but I do not wish to be limited to a rotating die. The sheet material that is to be cut, such as metal foil, is passed be-. tween the die and punch from a supply roller 12, a presser roller 13, having a yielding rubber coating 14, being held against the foil by means of presser bolts 15. The die 10 is rotated by the punch elementthat is forced to travel beneath the die and the sheet material 11 is fed from the roller 12 owing to the pull exerted thereupon by the opposed surface of the punch and die applied thereto. As the punch is moved in the direction indicated by the arrows in Figs. 1 and 3, thedie 10- is turned in a clockwise direction, the periphery of the die being indicated upon the cutting faces of the punch member by initially riding upon the front inclined portion of the punch structure. When the die has reached the top surface of the punch structure it is under such a degree of compression, owing to the adjustment effected by the bolts 10 where it contacts with the g punch structure, as to enable it to expand 'where it encounters the auxiliary sheet sup porting means 9 to depress said devices when; they are themselves made'of yielding matetween said supporting means 9\and the adjacent cutting edges of the punch when such yielding whereby-the sheet material 11 is depressed with the portions of the yielding die-that sink upon the supporting means 9 or into the spaces between "said supporting means and the punch with the'results which have been specified.- Where""thegauxiliary supporting means are made of rubber or auxiliary sheet supporting means are un other suitable yielding material, they are made hollowwhen covering any appreciable area, hollow spaces being illustrated at 16 in Figs. 4 and 5. These hollow spaces prevent the cylindrical die from causing the yield ing elements 9 to "bulge and pile up adjacent to the cutting edges", it being ap arent that if the elements 9 Werepermitte to pile up near the cutting edgesthat such piling action might be of suflicieht'extent' to prevent the cylindrical die from depressing the elements 9 below the'cutting face of the punch element and thereby prevent the punch' ele Inent from cutting the sheet material.

105 rial or to. enter. the enlarged clearance be- By means of my invention I am enabled to cut the characters in any shapes that may be desired irrespective of the nature of the sheet material that is suitable to the operation of the machine. Hitherto it has been the practice to form characters out of sheets of tin or other metal foil by the careful manipulation of hand operated tools. It was impossible commercially with the method of the prior art to cut characters in all sorts of shapes and with all sorts of curves out of tin foil. In the prior art it was also customary, when it was desired to have a character present a smooth edge and a mottled surface surrounded thereby, to employ two sheets for each character as illustrated for example in Fig. 7, the nether sheet 17 being smooth throughout the upper sheet 18 being mottled throughout, the latter sheet being of lesser extent than the first so that when the two sheets were glued together a smooth border aflorded by the nether sheet 17 would surround the upper sheet 18. By means of another feature of my invention I am enabled to produce the smooth and mottled appearance as indicated in Fig. 7 by asingle sheet. To this end the character forming elements are provided with smooth borders 19 margining their cutting edges and surrounding a roughened space which may be produced by gluing emery upon the cutting face of the character forming element as indicated at 20.

After the character has been roduced it is usually provided with a backin as indicated at 21 in Fig. 6 (this backing itself constituting a character) when these characters are to be fastened upon glass. The backing 21 may also be made of tin foil with the aid of a machine of my invention.

While I have herein shown and particularly described a machine for producing characters that are to form parts of signs, I do not wish to be limited to the precise nature and purpose of the product of the machine.

Changes may readily be made in the machine forming the preferred embodiment of my invention without departing from the spirit of my invention and I do not therefore wish to be limited to the precise details of construction, but

Having thus described my invention, I

claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent the following 1, A machine for producing characters including a punch element having cutting edges conformin .to the character to be produced;,a yiel 1 g die element into which the punch may be impressed and'between which punch and die elements sheet material 'may be fed from which the characters are to be cut; and auxiliary yielding compressible and self-expansible sheet supporting means 66 adjacent to' the cutting edges of the punch and operating to support the sheet in contact with the die to enable the punch to have roper cutting action upon the sheet.

2. A machine for producing characters including a punch element having cutting edges conforming to the character to be produced; a yielding rotatin die element into which the punch may be lmpressed' and between which punch and die elements sheet material may be fed from which the charactersare to be cut; and auxiliary yielding compressible and self-expansible sheet supporting means adjacent to the cutting edges of the punch and operating to support the sheet in contact with the die to enable the punch to have proper cutting action upon the sheet.

3. A machine for producing characters including a punch element having cutting edges conforming to the character to be produced; a yielding die element into which the punch may be impressed and between which punch and die elements sheet material may be fed from which the characters are to be cut; and auxiliary yielding sheet sup porting means adjacent to the cutting edges of the punch and operating to support the sheet in contact with the die to enable the punch to have proper cutting action upon the sheet, the auxiliary supporting means being hollow to prevent the die from piling it up to an objectionable extent.

4. A machine for producing characters including a punch element having cutting edges conforming to the character to be produced; a yielding rotatin die element into which the punch may be lmpressed and between which punch and die elements sheet material may be fed from which the characters are to be cut; and auxiliary yielding sheet supporting1 means adjacent to the cutting edges of t e punch and operating to support the sheet in contact with the die to enable the punch to have proper cutting action upon the sheet, the auxiliary supporting means being hollow to prevent the die from piling it up to an objectionable extent.

5. A machine for producing characters including a punch element having cutting edges conforming to the character to be produced; a yielding die element into which the punch may be impressed and between -which punch and die elements sheet material may be fed from which the characters are to be cut; and auxiliary yielding, compressible and self-expansible sheet supportmg means adjacent to the cutting edges of the punch and operating to support the sheet in contact with the die to enable the punch to have proper cutting action u'pon the sheet, the auxiliary supporting means being hollow to prevent the ie from piling it up to an objectionable extent.

6. A machine for producing characters including a punch element having cutting the punch to have proper cutting action edges conforming to the character to be upon the sheet, the auxillary supporting produced; a yielding rotating die element into' which the punch may be impressed and between which punch and die elements sheet material may be fed from which the characters are to be cut; and auxiliary yielding, compressible and self-expansible sheet supporting means adjacent to the cutting edges of the punch and operating to support the sheet in contact with the die 'to enable means being hollow to prevent the die from piling it, up to an objectionable extent;

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name this 29th day of April A. D., 1911.

ALBERT WILKIN Witnesses:

.G. L. CRAee, ETTA L. WHITE. 

